Feldgrau.net

As an example: LAH had bee reconstituted several times and lost more men as cadres to HJ, when it got to Belguim in '44 for a refit. It then absorbed thousands of men and much new equipment. The core of the div was still good and did a remarkable job of pulling the new guys together to form units. T...

Great stuff. I love dry, boring organizational charts! My wife always checks the back of a book before buying it before to be sure it lots of that.

best
Michael (Reb)

Marc I've climbed all over the Soviet tanks at Aberdeen Proving Ground and while they certainly have an ominous, almost asiatic look to them, they also come across as poorly constructed junk. I subsequently had the chance to serve in a tank unit with Soviet post war (barely) machines - T55. And yep ...

They would still have lost. In Normandy, where the Germans actually had some pretty well equipped units, the allies had countered the German tactic of massing at the schwerpunkt for big attacks by inderdicting all movement with air and artillery so they couldn't really form up for big attacks like t...

Hey David - Howzit? So you refuse to believe that landing four allied divs in sciliy really saved those poor foolish soviets eh? I wonder how huge a difference LAH would have made, ultimately it was the only pz div of SS Pz Korps to go to Italy and it left all its panzers and heavy weapons with T an...

lwd Correct. The early PIV had a short barreled infantry support gun. It was rapidly upgraded to first a better long 75 and then a much better one. (at work so can't look up the specs). The problem for Sherman was the 76 only appeared in quantity late in '44 and it lacked the punch the 75 had in inf...

I love debating with you Michael since you always come up with useful info! The fact that 60% of hits were from the side may be due to the fact that many tanks were only vulnerable from the side - at least, German tanks. As I noted, western allied tanks were vulnerable front, side and rear. cheers M...

Michael Sorry - don't agree. Sherman had lots of good features but was drastically undergunned for anything but infantry suport work. The Pz IV had a weapon that could penetrate any western tank at that time (possible exception was Churchill from the front). Sherman was only just getting a 76 mm tha...

Antonio

Welcome. Since you like the Eastern Front you'll find much to your liking here. Check out posts by Tigre (Raul) and in particular his work and pictures from the 250 Spanish Blue Div.

cheers
Michael (Reb)

Thanks Raul, Sebastion

It's a happy coincidence for me - I was just thinking a couple days ago - "where can one find some good info on the Spanish Div?"

best
Michael (Reb)

John My grandparents lived in Chambersburg which is right next to Gettysburg. The latter town practically oozes history and I try to get there every couple of years at least. Love the Dutch seven sweets and seven sours. (I assume Dutch is actually Deutch in this case). My grandfather took me to the ...

John Ringo's Posleen War SCI FI series has quite literally "resurrected" the Waffen SS. The threat from outer space forces them to rejuvenate a senile Mulhlenkamp who forms 8 SS divs to fight the cannibalistic aliens. Not a bad read - called Watch on the Rhine.

cheers
Reb

Probably. A Time on Target can be pretty awe inspiring. They had cute codenames for different levels of mayhem and numbers / calibers of guns - the one that comes to mind immediately is 'serenade.'

cheers
Michael (Reb)

Carl

Alexander McKee notes this in "Caen: Anvil of Victory." Shell shocked German prisoners ask to see the "belt fed twenty five pounders." McKee was on the scene and his book (still a classic - just bought a new copy) was way ahead of the curve for showing both sides.

Cheers
Michael (Reb)

History of course is time sensitive. At Gazala the M3 Lee/Grant was considered a new and terribly dangerous 'super heavy' allied tank by the Germans who were being hit from ranges exceeding anything the British had thrown at them previously. Sherman made a similar impression at Alamein. The Brits th...